Annual Progress Report

2017 - 2018

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1.0. Financial Services for Migrant Households

Labour migration has emerged as a major livelihood strategy in south Rajasthan.

Growing agricultural distress and limited local employment opportunities have led to

young men migrating to cities through their social networks in search of a livelihood.

The most common destinations include Ahmedabad, Surat, north Gujarat and

Maharashtra. Such migrant households are affected by seasonal fluctuations in income,

cash flow volatilities at source, high initial costs of migration and an inability to tide

over risks such as death, disability, illness and old age. In response to their growing

financial needs Rajasthan Shram Sarathi Association, a section 8 company, was

established in 2007 as a Migrant Financial Services Institution. Shram Sarathi’s vision is

“to become a leading agency working towards ensuring secure, dignified lives of

communities dependent on migration and labour”. This vision is realised through the

following mission:

– To enable financial inclusion of communities dependent on migration and labour

via provision of financial services so that they are able to increase incomes,

manage cash flows, and reduce the cost of migration

– To establish a sustainable model that will serve as a glass house for financial

service providers to engage with migrants

Shram Sarathi seeks to achieve its goal of improving the economic well-being of migrant

households through two key approaches – (i) delivery of financial services such as

savings, credit, insurance and pension and (ii) delivery of financial literacy and

counselling. Both approaches complement each other in enabling financial inclusion of

migrant workers.

2.0. Major Highlights (April 2017- March 2018)

During the first six months of 2017-18 Shram Sarathi overcame several challenges and

emerged stronger. The year began with a national recognition of Shram Sarathi’s work

at the Inclusion Plus awards organised by Metlife foundation. Shram Sarathi was also

one of the winners of the Customer Centricity Challenge 2018 organised by CGAP,

Dvara, Leapfrog Investments and SPTF. In the first quarter, expansion plans were

temporarily affected due to the challenge in raising debt capital, however towards the

end of the six month period several financial commitments were received with

promising conversations for the future as well. This created greater momentum in

operations and expansion to new geographies. As a result of such expansion, the team

size increased during the past 12 months. New operational processes were introduced

that aimed to reduce the turnaround time for clients and encourage greater usage of

bank accounts. As we expanded our credit services to newer migrant groups, new and

specialised needs such as education financing also came to light. The team launched a

significant financial literacy campaign on uniformity in KYC documents which has long

term benefits for workers and their families to access financial services and other

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entitlements. Pilot programs with women entrepreneurs and migrants affected by TB

also gained greater momentum and structure during the one year period. An important

piece of work during this period was a thorough assessment of Shram Sarathi’s

suitability to be an NBFC and much needed additions to the MoA to enable smoother

scaling up. Towards the end of the financial year, Shram Sarathi forged two new

technology partnerships with Dvara solutions and Pay Nearby to enable smoother

scaling up and a platform to introduce new digital products for our client segment. In

2017-18, we initiated our engagement with several players in the industry, the most

significant being becoming a member of Sa-dhan, a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO).

This report summarizes our work on the ground in the last one year, its impact on the

lives of our clients, new developments, dialogues and future plans.

3.0. Operational Snapshot

Shram Sarathi offers a suite of financial services to seasonal migrant communities.

These comprise of credit, life insurance, NPS contributory pension services and an

informal savings programme called gullak bachat. This is combined with a counselling

and financial literacy initiative. A new cash-in, cash-out service was launched in Q4

which is described in subsequent sections of the report. An operational snapshot is

provided below:

A total of 3478 migrant families were disbursed loans amounting to 4.99 crore rupees in

2017-18, a 36% rise from the same period in the previous financial year. Of these, 77%

of the families comprised of long duration and short duration migrants who are absent

from source for longer periods of time; 63% were daily wage workers and contractual

0.07 %

NPAs as on

March 2018

4914

Cumulative pension

customers serviced

2924

Cumulative

insurance

customers

1759

Cumulative

bank accounts

opened

4375 3478 4.3 cr. 4.99 cr

Active clients

as on March

2018

Loans

disbursed

2017-18

O/s loan portfolio

(INR) as on March

2018

Value of

disbursements

(INR) 2017-18

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labourers and over 95% clients belonged to schedule tribe communities. During the

year, 53% of loans were availed for creation of assets such as concrete houses, silver

and livestock; 22% loans were used to free up mortgaged assets such as land and silver

from informal moneylenders; 16% loans were utilized for agricultural investments and

over 5% loans were utilized for promotion of local enterprises. With 4375 active clients

at the end of the year, the overall repayment rate was 97.5% with PAR %(>30 days) at

0.59%. The NPAs are extremely low at 0.07% and is an indication of strong client

identification and due diligence processes.

Client demand remained high during this period, however due to shortage of funds for

on-lending between May-July, the operations was able to meet only a proportion of the

actual demand. With promising lender commitments after August 2017, the momentum

in operations picked up during the last two quarters. During the last quarter of the year,

Shram Sarathi also established a new branch at Kherwara in Udaipur district and

opened up two new zones in Sabla, currently under Salumbar branch. Our presence in

Kherwara opens up new opportunities to work with migrants primarily moving to

Ahmedabad and north Gujarat, while Sabla demonstrates potential to spin off into a new

branch in the near future. After a promising start in the last quarter, these new

geographies have begun to contribute significantly to overall operational growth and

outreach.

New operational processes were also introduced in the last quarter, the most significant

one being the introduction of credit disbursements through NEFT transactions. This has

helped reduce the cost and time involved in disbursement processes. More importantly

however, it has improved bank account usage among migrant workers and their family

members who avail loans from us. This has also created opportunities for helping

workers with inactive or dormant bank accounts to reactivate and regularly start

operating their bank accounts.

Particulars 2016-17 2017-18 % Change

Number of

Disbursements

2565 3478 36%

Value of Loans Disbursed 3,07,20,300 4,99,77,500 63%

Average Ticket size 11,875 Rs. 14,370 Rs. 21%

Active clients as on

March 31

2977 4375 47%

Outstanding Portfolio as

on March 31

2,39,94,071 4,30,94,902 80%

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Poorti – Home completion loans

Poorti or the home completion loan product is a credit product ranging from 25,000 –

60,000 rupees to enable workers complete the construction of their house within three

months and make it liveable. 35 new clients were disbursed loans under the Poorti

product during the previous year, bringing the total number of active clients under the

program to 87. With over 90% on-time utilization rates, this loan has enabled them to

save at least two years’ worth of construction time and corresponding increase in costs.

The role of the mason here has become quite indispensable and we need to on-board

and train more masons for both our branches in Gogunda and Salumbar. We now need

to explore savings and health insurance products that will secure their lives during the

loan tenure period.

Some operational challenges that we foresee are expansion of an individual large-ticket-

size product in a group (JLG) based environment. Clients still shy away from applying

for a loan that is two-three times of what they borrow from a single individual/entity.

The team is working on improving communications around the product and re-enforce

the tranche based structure that breaks down the loan into smaller amounts.

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In 2017-18, Shram Sarathi also successfully settled two pension claims amounting to Rs.

18,052. These claims arose due to the death of the pension account holder. 27 insurance

claims amounting to Rs. 3,51,709 were settled which included individual life insurance

and credit-linked insurance policies.

An important point to note is that the number of female financial service officers has

been the highest ever in Shram Sarathi and significant efforts were made to ensure their

inclusion and well-being. A forum for female staff members was created during the last

year which offers a platform for them to share their experiences working in the field

and support each other through their unique challenges.

4.0. Financial literacy

There have been several new developments in Shram Sarathi’s financial literacy

initiatives. A focus during the previous year was on tapping the wide volunteer base of

Aajeevika Bureau to increase the reach of financial literacy messages in some of the

most interior regions of south Rajasthan. New financial literacy tools and modules were

also tested during this period. We have conducted intensive financial literacy

workshops with community volunteers impacting migrant communities across four

districts of south Rajasthan.

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34 financial literacy workshops were conducted with three different community

volunteer groups. These include:

• Para-legal volunteers – This is a cadre of volunteers for Aajeevika Bureau’s legal

services having deep roots within the community with relatively better

educational levels and skills in delivering technical advice.

• Collective members – These ae labour collectives facilitated by Aajeevika Bureau

which comprise of workers and petty contractors, who are influencers in their

communities.

• Ujala mitras – This a cadre of female volunteers who work closely with Aajeevika

Bureau’s Family Empowerment Program (FEP). They work closely with women’s

solidarity groups formed by women of migrant household to seek better access

to entitlements.

These groups live and work closely with migrant communities living in the hinterlands

of rural Rajasthan. Such volunteers are also role models for the community at large. Our

belief is that when equipped with the right set of literacy tools and platforms, these

volunteer can be a powerful force in building financial literacy and capabilities among

low-income migrant communities.

Shram Sarathi’s own cadre of officers that cater to nearly 4500 migrant workers were

also part of these workshops. Our officers are from the same region and are role models

within their own communities. Training in financial literacy tools therefore enables

them to confidently work on building financial literacy and capabilities among clients.

During the year, our officers conducted over 61 financial literacy meetings in the

community. The team also identified operational processes during which brief, yet

impactful financial literacy messages could be delivered to Shram Sarathi clients.

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Some financial literacy tools and modules that were tested during this period are given

below:

• A credit agreement tool – Migrant families in the region often avail bridge loans

from moneylenders without any formal documentation. Our tool enables them to

track details such as loan amounts, interest rates, value of collaterals and tenure

among other details. This tool has been piloted with our own loan clients.

• Streamlining of KYC documents – A significant initiative in the past six months

was a campaign to ensure uniformity across KYC documents. Alongside financial

literacy sessions on this subject, the team also tied up with Aadhaar centres to

ensure that banking documents, Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards and ration cards

bear the same spelling. This initiative, although time-intensive has long term

impact on ensuring that migrant workers are better integrated into the formal

financial system.

In addition to these, financial literacy sessions were conducted on topics such as the

importance of a savings bank account, regular savings, insurance, linking of mobile

numbers with bank accounts and the importance of maintaining a good credit history.

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5.0. Pilot programs

Anokhi – Promotion of women-led enterprises in high migration communities

In 2017-18, Shram Sarathi piloted Anokhi – a pilot program to promote womn

entrepreneurs in high migration geographies through training and financial support.

This program was designed for women who were already running a business but could

not expand further. In 2017-18, we began two cohorts under this pilot. A cohort of 49

women were trained during this time period of which 29 women received financial

assistance to expand their businesses. The women received credit amounting to a total

of Rs. 7,85,500 – an average amount of Rs. 27,000 per entrepreneur. These business

expansion loans range from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 45,000 for these cohorts.

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Himati Bai, a resident of Amalwa village in Udaipur district. She runs a diversified

business and has managed to increase her daily sales by 1.8 times in a year's time.

She is one of the few women in the area who can fix a tyre puncture by herself!

The training sessions enabled the entrepreneurs to set visions and targets on where

they want to see their businesses in the near future. The entrepreneurs also realized the

importance of infrastructure expansion in their businesses. Almost half of the women

invested in the creation of fixed assets. The training modules also had a one-on-one

business planning module, where a highly skilled member of the staff assisted them in

understanding where they want to be in future and then built their business projections

for three years. All these modules have been jointly designed by field teams from Shram

Sarathi and Aajeevika Bureau using principles of Walker’s cycle. In the next year, these

modules shall be documented and used for expansion of the pilot to newer geographies

and more number of groups.

The women entrepreneurs showed excellent skill in managing the deployment of the

fund infusion. And end line assessment of the first cohort showed that their stock levels

increased by 2.3 times of their original stock and their daily sales also increased by 1.9

times of their baseline sales levels. Although the exceedingly high multiples are a result

of the low baseline it still requires tremendous skill, confidence and ability to manage

and deploy large fund infusions.

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Teju*, a client under the a-kshya program solution

gained 5 kg. and recovered fully from TB

*Name changed for ethical reasons

a-kshya – Financial interventions for better TB treatment adherence among

affected migrants

The a-kshya product enables migrant workers afflicted with tuberculosis to complete

treatment by availing a soft loan, disbursed in monthly instalments to meet

consumption and nutritional expenses. These disbursals are contingent upon timely

adherence to treatment. This programme is run jointly with AMRIT clinics under the

Aajeevika Bureau consortium. The health workers ensure that patients adhere to

treatment and take adequate nutrition.

During the previous year, we added a

total of 14 new patients under this pilot

program, taking the total number of

active clients under the program to 19.

Out of these 19 clients, 13 have

successfully completed their treatment

and 12 of them have already rejoined

the workforce. There have been no

drop-outs from treatment during this

phase (which was our primary

achievement marker). The increase in

client weight has ranged from 2 kg to 5

kg during the period of the loan.

The biggest challenge has been to increase the number of migrants enrolled in this

programme. A challenge from the patients’ perspective has been dealing with family

emergencies during the time of treatment. For instance, if there is another health

emergency in the family then the cash received during the treatment period has to be

diverted to meet the emergency. Another large operational challenge was that all the

patients enrolled under this programme fall outside Shram Sarathi’s current operational

areas. Thus the incremental time and effort required to service this segment is quite

high. The above challenges not with-standing, the team was motivated by the impact of

this intervention and the effects were quite striking. There is a distinct positive change

in the weight of the client, confidence and body language. Clients expressed that the

increase in cash-flow enabled them to adhere to the strict and rich nutrition regime

where they had to acquire eggs, fish and milk. Prior to the cash infusion, the patients

were dependent on doles handed out by friends and family, which were mostly in the

form of wheat. This was therefore a more dignified means of overcoming the disease

over a period of time.

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6.0. Awards, recognition and partnerships

Awards & recognition

Shram Sarathi began the financial year on an extremely positive note. In April 2017,

Shram Sarathi bagged two awards at the Inclusion Plus competition organised by

Metlife Foundation in India. As part of this national level competition, Shram Sarathi

won the People’s choice award and the Second runners up award for innovations in

financial inclusion. The award was a strong validation of our impact on the ground and

innovative business model.

Following the competition, we received several press mentions and testimonials from

our mentors during the competition. Shram Sarathi also made a concerted effort to

share more on our work on social media and online blogs. A few posts that received

significant online outreach are mentioned below:

• https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/06/pass-huey-toh-zindabad-fail-huey-toh-

ahmedabad/

• https://www.thebetterindia.com/112303/death-of-a-camel/

• https://migrantscape.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/i-only-crave-a-peaceful-life-

stories-of-uncertainty-and-risk-in-rural-rajasthan/

• https://vimeo.com/218968433

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During the year, Shram Sarathi was recognised as a winner at the Customer Centricity

Challenge organised by CGAP, Dvara, Leapfrog Investments and SPTF. Edelgive

Foundation also felicitated Shram Sarathi recognizing the immense impact of our

financial solutions on the lives of migrant families.

Partnerships

In June 2017, Shram Sarathi was registered as a member of Sa-dhan – a

self-regulating organisation (SRO) recognized by the RBI. As a member of

Sa-dhan, Shram Sarathi now provides quarterly data to the RBI and is also

committed to the voluntary code of conduct.

In the last quarter of 2017-18, Shram Sarathi partnered with Dvara

solutions for a new technology solution. This shall go a long way in

enabling paperless operations and greater efficiency in operations. Over

the next year, the team shall work on migrating to this solution and test it

out in the field.

Another significant technology partnership was with Pay

Nearby solutions. Through this partnership Shram Sarathi

shall now be able to provide domestic money transfer

solutions, AEPS services and account validation services

among others. This shall help us significantly improve usage of formal banking among

migrant communities both at source and destination.

New partnerships were also forged with

Dalyan foundation, Tata Trust, Edelweiss Retail

Finance Group and Micro-Housing Finance

Corporation Ltd. to support pilot programs on

and scale up existing operations as well.

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7.0. Future goals, challenges and opportunities

2017-18 has been an eventful year for Shram Sarathi with several new pilots, expansion

of operations and strong partnerships. We are confident that these developments will

help us in creating social impact and achieving a scale that makes our presence in the

sector significant. In the next year, Shram Sarathi will focus its attention on reaching

larger numbers of migrant families across various geographies. Digital literacy and

inclusion is major topic of interest for Shram Sarathi and with our new technology

partnerships, we shall realize this goal in 2018-19. Fundraising continues to be a

challenge for innovative models such as ours and we hope to forge newer funding

partnership in the next year. As we scale our existing work, we plan to further delineate

the needs, strengths and weaknesses of various client segments within the larger group

of migrants so that we continue to create innovative and high impact financial services

that are appropriate for each sub-group.

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Stories of Impact

Housing for Dignity

Dharmi bai and Hurji Meena are residents of Paroda village in Salumbar and have been

blessed with seven daughters. Hurji works in a small hotel in Ahmedabad that serves

sweets, samosas and other snacks. Two years after after his first marriage in 1995, Hurji

migrated to Ahmedabad and earned a meagre 300 rupees per month in wages. During

this time, due to a domestic dispute and abuse at the hands of his wife’s family, the

community leaders and Hurji mutually agreed to a divorce. Soon after Hurji remarried.

Hurji lived in the village and worked on the farm to look after his parents, wife and

children, however the income and produce was never sufficient. After they passed away,

he began migrating to Ahmedabad again every summer. As his family grew bigger, he

began saving whatever small amount that he could in order to build a bigger house for

his family of 9. He began with creating the foundation with stones and incrementally

constructing the house whenever he had the money. During this time, they kept living in

the same old mud house. In 2013, he was sanctioned a government housing subsidy of

50,000 rupees under the Indira Awaas Yojana and in November of that year, he availed

his first loan from Shram Sarathi for 7,500 rupees to erect walls on all four sides. While

he was constructing this new house, his older mud house collapsed during the rains and

he and his family were forced to live under a plastic sheet. He availed 10,000 rupees in

2014 from Shram Sarathi to purchase stone slabs and another 15,000 rupees loan in

2015 to plaster the walls. The house was still incomplete though. The roof still leaked

during monsoons and he hadn’t affixed doors and windows yet. He used to worry about

his family’s safety and felt reluctant to migrate to Ahmedabad leaving them behind in an

incomplete house.

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In 2017, due his strong credit history, he became eligible for a 50,000 rupees loan and

mason advisory services under the new housing program Poorti piloted by Shram

Sarathi. With this he completed the construction of his house, by strengthening the roof,

affixing doors and windows and a safety wall on the roof. Hurji says that the biggest

impact of the Poorti loan has been his peace of mind. He no longer worries for his

family’s safety at night or during the monsoons when he migrates. His income had

increased 12,000 rupees as a result of this and above all, a complete house offered a

dignified way of living for him and his family.

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A Narrow Escape from Bondage

Only 25 kilometres to the south of Gogunda block is the small scattered hamlet of

Damro ki Gavdi situated on the top of a hill and inhabited by 40 tribal families. Each of

these families has at least one migrant. The older migrants mostly commute to Udaipur

daily in search of construction work, while the younger men migrate to Gujarat to work

as cooks, cleaners and headloaders. The predominant group however is that of

headloaders who work in the cumin markets of Unjha, Gujarat.

Mangilal Gameti, 32 years, lives in this hamlet with his wife Harmi bai, his aged parents

and five children. Mangilal is one of the headloaders who migrates to Unjha for around 7

months in a year and earns approximately 400-600 rupees a day after back-breaking

work. Harmi bai contributes around 5000 rupees to the household that he earns from

MNREGS work. With an average monthly income of only 10,000 rupees per month for a

family of 8, they are barely able to make ends meet.

During the first half of 2017, the family had borrowed 4800 rupees from a local

moneylender named Vijender Singh in order to purchase cement and slabs for repairing

their house. They had promised to pay back the sum within 2 months. However, during

this time, Mangi lal fell very ill and was unable to go to work and consequently defaulted

on his payment to the moneylender. Vijender Singh in turn grabbed Mangilal’s bank

passbook and Aadhaar card and refused to return the documents unless Mangilal

agreed to work off his debt by doing free labour for him. Shambhu lal, a neighbor and

friend referred Mangilal to Shram Sarathi. After completing all formailities, Mangilal and

Harmi bai received a loan of 7,500 rupees from Shram Sarathi. They paid back Vijender

Singh’s dues (4800 rupees + 200 rupees interest) and used the balance amount to

strengthen the roof of their house. Mangilal was also able to recover all his documents

from the moneylender.

Both Mangilal and Harmi bai say they’re lucky that they escaped a life of bondage.

Apparently it was not uncommon for the moneylender to enter into such labour

arrangements when people failed to repay a lumpsum amount on time. Mangilal was

able to regain his health and has migrated back to Unjha for work. Harmi bai manages

the transactions in his absence and also refers other such migrant families from their

village.

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Distress migration and recovering assets

Vala Meena, 49, and his family of three live in a quiet hamlet call Dhundha fala in

Salumbar situated nearly 100 kilometres from Udaipur. Most families in Dhundha fala

have at least one migrant working in Surat, Mumbai, Barmer etc. in occupations such as

construction, cooking and hospitality.

Nearly 25 years ago, Vala himself used to migrate to Ahmedabad and worked as a

domestic help in a bungalow. At that time, he earned a meagre 400 rupees per month.

After 12 years of working as a domestic help, he heard of a job opportunity in Ambika

marble mines which was to closer home. He thought it would prove to be a good

opportunity for him to earn more and stay with his family instead of migrating. One

unfortunate day, Vala’s hand was stuck while operating a marble cutting machine and

he lost his right hand. As a result of this handicap, he was suddenly rendered

unemployed. His daughter, who was born with a handicap was unable to contribute to

the family income and his son was studying in the 7th grade at the time.

Around the same time, Vala got his daughter married and two years later had to admit

her to a hospital in Udaipur for the birth of her first child. Tragedy struck again and her

daughter gave birth to a still born. In order to pay for these medical expenses, Vala had

to borrow 10,000 rupees from a moneylender named Bhanwar lal Jain by pawning his

wife’s silver anklets and jewellery weighing nearly 700 grams. In spite of the collateral,

he still owed the moneylender a compounding interest of 2% per month.

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With the expensive loan and Vala’s handicap, his family could no longer survive on his

wife’s income alone. He could not even afford to pay for notebooks and school fees for

his son who was then studying in the 9th grade. As a result of such financial distress,

Vala’s son, Mohan, dropped out of school and migrated to Ahmedabad in order to

support the family. Mohan, who works for around 9 months in a year earns 7000 rupees

per month, while his mother manages to contribute 2000 rupees each month through

local labour. In spite of a modest saving each month, Vala was not able to put together

enough money to repay the moneylender in lump sum. With accumulated interest, Vala

now owed the moneylender 19,500 rupees. He had some savings and with his son’s

earnings, he only has 12,000 rupees. Vala soon learnt about Shram Sarathi’s work in the

area and availed a loan of 7,500 rupees. With this he was able to repay his debt to the

moneylender and free up his mortgaged silver. The team also counselled his son Mohan

on training courses provided by Aajeevika Bureau and referred his daughter and

himself to the centre to initiate a process of receiving state disability pensions. While

Vala still regrets the fact that his son had to drop out of school to support the family, he

hopes that with some skills, Mohan can have a more secure future. He also hopes to

build a concrete someday and for a better quality of life.

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Credit relationships

In the scattered village of Patiya in Udaipur district, a large number of workers

commute to Udaipur’s construction nakas and the Kelva marble mines each day in

search of work. While older migrants commute, the younger men migrate to various

cities in Gujarat to work in cooking, textiles and headloading. Gita bai Gameti and her

husband Kheta Gameti are one such family in Patiya. While their son drives a Jeep and

earns 6000 rupees a month, Kheta migrates to Udaipur and earns 300 rupees a day as

an unskilled construction worker. The family of five survives on approximately 9000

rupees a month alone. Gita and her husband have availed four loans from Shram Sarathi

thus far. The very first loan of 5000 rupees was used to plaster the walls of their house;

they used the second loan of 10,000 rupees to purchase stone slabs for the roof; another

15,000 rupees for plastering walls and most recently, they availed 10,000 rupees to pay

off an old debt.

When they got their son married earlier in 2017, Gita and Kheta had borrowed 15,000

rupees from a relative at no interest, of which they had repaid 5,000 rupees but were

unable to put together the remaining sum. Their relative repeatedly kept asking them to

repay the balance amount since he was in urgent need of money. Although the debt did

not bear any interest, Gita and her husband were very keen on returning the money

since they wanted to maintain a cordial relationship with their relative. Furthermore,

had they not repaid him on time, any future possibility of seeking help from the relative

would be completely out of question. With a fourth loan from Shram Sarathi, they repaid

the relative on time. They were thus able to ensure that they would continue to have a

convenient source of credit (i.e. their relative) while at the same time honouring the

relative’s request to make his funds available on time. Having the choice to borrow from

multiple sources therefore was of great value to Gita and Kheta and with the help of

Shram Sarathi’s loan, they were able to ensure that.

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